Do the Holidays Affect Your Relationship?

The hol­i­days are upon us and if you didn’t fig­ure out what to do with your sig­nif­i­cant other or what to get them you may well be doomed!  Don’t worry, though, this post isn’t about that.  It’s far sim­pler, in fact.  The ques­tion is this:  How do the hol­i­days affect peo­ple in a rela­tion­ship, if at all?I don’t think there’s any ques­tion that the hol­i­days affect rela­tion­ships.  They do!  How, though?  If you’re in a casual rela­tion­ship, just see­ing some­one, the hol­i­days can be some­thing of a spring board to a dis­cus­sion of whether or not things are going to be more seri­ous.  Or it can solid­ify the cur­rent sta­tus of that rela­tion­ship.  It’s weird how that hap­pens, but it just does; I’ve been there.

I think, more promi­nent, is that peo­ple who are unhappy in rela­tion­ships tend to stay in them through the hol­i­days and beyond.  In fact, there was a study done in 2004 that sur­veyed 1000 cou­ples, who were unhappy in their rela­tion­ship.  The study showed that 51% of those unhappy cou­ples stayed together through the hol­i­days, with 20% stick­ing it out even longer.  How­ever, 30% of those cou­ples did breakup before the hol­i­day sea­son got started (prior to Thanks­giv­ing).  Those are some stag­ger­ing fig­ures, if you think about it.

Hol­i­day par­ties are inter­est­ing, too.  Sur­veys have showed that hol­i­day par­ties see sin­gles bring­ing a date with them more often than any other com­pany hosted party or event out­side of the hol­i­day season.

Of course, there’s always the gift giv­ing por­tion of the hol­i­days.  Any­one you ask, for the most part, will tell you that they’re not in a rela­tion­ship for mate­r­ial things or money.  Okay.  I can buy that.  How­ever, what hap­pens when you only get a Christ­mas, Chanukah, Kwan­zaa card?  A seri­ous beat down, that’s what and it’s likely to be none too awe­some.  Gifts are a non-​​verbal way to show that you care.  That’s where the real value is placed on a gift, show­ing that you care.

The hol­i­days are ready to do a num­ber on you, kids.  Be ready and don’t by a lame gift and be a loser.  Uncle Santa will show you the busi­ness end of his size 10 boot.  Count on it.

Related posts:

1. Why Being Broke can Make a Rela­tion­ship Suck.
2. What’s the Worst Dat­ing Advice You’ve Received?